how to recover from firmware upgrade?

[bimmerluv]

i have a mk4, and during the firmware upgrade (from a CD that I burned at slow speed on quality media and have used on a friend's 5 series successfully) it seemed like the mk4 crashed. the screen went blank and nothing happened. from what i recall when i used this cd on my friend's car, there was suppose to be a screen that says 'programmin update' or something like that with a progress bar. this never showed up. also, the "power" led on the MK4 went off but i can still hear the CD spinning and sounds like the laser is moving back and forth (reading?). eventually i just had to stop it. but now the nav screen is blank.

is there a way to recover from this? the Cd was v29.1. Should i try an older version?

[KiwiJochen]

Originally Posted by bimmerluv

i have a mk4, and during the firmware upgrade (from a CD that I burned at slow speed on quality media and have used on a friend's 5 series successfully) it seemed like the mk4 crashed. the screen went blank and nothing happened. from what i recall when i used this cd on my friend's car, there was suppose to be a screen that says 'programmin update' or something like that with a progress bar. this never showed up. also, the "power" led on the MK4 went off but i can still hear the CD spinning and sounds like the laser is moving back and forth (reading?). eventually i just had to stop it. but now the nav screen is blank.

is there a way to recover from this? the Cd was v29.1. Should i try an older version?

Some nav units are more sensitive to errors/scratches/fingerprints on the disc.
Make another nav OS CD and try that.
Make sure you verify post-burn and that the CD is error free.
You can also try using an older version to ensure you force an upgrade, but I think your nav has no OS loaded now so won't matter what OS you use.

Good luck! Hopefully your nav memory has not been corrupted!

[Bombolo]

Originally Posted by KiwiJochen

Good luck! Hopefully your nav memory has not been corrupted!

Hi,

Does have somebody any experience with recovering an mk3/mk4 with corrupted memory? I have an mk4 with corrupted software, the splash screen is "running", and no reaction to a good SW disk or pushing buttons. I'm sure, that a SW update went wrong.
Are there any way to delete the corrupted SW from the unit? When a nav unit is brand new, is there a loader sw in the memory? or is the memory blank in the unit?

Thanks in advance.

Bombolo

[bimmerluv]

Originally Posted by KiwiJochen

Some nav units are more sensitive to errors/scratches/fingerprints on the disc.
Make another nav OS CD and try that.
Make sure you verify post-burn and that the CD is error free.
You can also try using an older version to ensure you force an upgrade, but I think your nav has no OS loaded now so won't matter what OS you use.

Good luck! Hopefully your nav memory has not been corrupted!

Thanks for the response. I tried loading the v29.1 CD for over 60 min last night, and nothing happened. I'm going to take your suggestion and burn another CD and see what happens.

Also, in my search for a solution, i read that the laser for the CD and the DVD are different and sometimes one can fail. I wonder if I can burn the v29.1 OS image to a DVD. Will the unit also read the OS from a DVD disc?

[KiwiJochen]

Originally Posted by bimmerluv

Thanks for the response. I tried loading the v29.1 CD for over 60 min last night, and nothing happened. I'm going to take your suggestion and burn another CD and see what happens.

Also, in my search for a solution, i read that the laser for the CD and the DVD are different and sometimes one can fail. I wonder if I can burn the v29.1 OS image to a DVD. Will the unit also read the OS from a DVD disc?

You are right- different lasers.

I've never tried loading the OS from a DVD, but logic tells me it should work exactly the same.

Try it! Just make sure your v29.1 is error free (verify after your burn)

Try also a downgrade to an older OS (v24, v25, v28 etc) to restore operation.

[cato.boss]

Originally Posted by Bombolo

Hi,

Does have somebody any experience with recovering an mk3/mk4 with corrupted memory? I have an mk4 with corrupted software, the splash screen is "running", and no reaction to a good SW disk or pushing buttons. I'm sure, that a SW update went wrong.
Are there any way to delete the corrupted SW from the unit? When a nav unit is brand new, is there a loader sw in the memory? or is the memory blank in the unit?

Thanks in advance.

Bombolo

I do recovery in MK with flash-programmer, unmount flash from unit and manually reprograming. it 100% works.

[edva]

Anybody know how to go back from version 29.1 to V27 , it will say your software is up to date. Thanks

[bimmerluv]

just want to follow up here. it seems that my CD laser is faulty. and while trying to reprogram itself with the OS CD, it become unusable. (blank screen) I re-burned the OS with a DVD, and it was able to reprogram itself and is now functional again.

the symptoms i had was after the "Loading CD" the screen went blank and never came back. and eventually, i just had to shut it off. if this happens to you, try using a DVD instead.

[ccfj1]

Thanks for the info, Just as well the OS can be read from a DVD (I did'nt know that), I'll have to remember that.

[Brian-bmw]

Originally Posted by bimmerluv

just want to follow up here. it seems that my CD laser is faulty. and while trying to reprogram itself with the OS CD, it become unusable. (blank screen) I re-burned the OS with a DVD, and it was able to reprogram itself and is now functional again.

the symptoms i had was after the "Loading CD" the screen went blank and never came back. and eventually, i just had to shut it off. if this happens to you, try using a DVD instead.

Great thinking! I am glad for your success.